This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

SHANKAR-JAIKISHEN IN THE 50s…Song No.5
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Today’s song is from the film Shararat-1959. This is the ninth and final song from the film to be posted, so with this song ALL songs of Shararat-59 will be covered in the blog.
I remember having seen Shararat-59 in the Theatre. Those were the days when Kishore Kumar was our favourite actor-singer. His songs were the craze among youngsters those days. The simple equation of Kishore Kumar is equal to entertainment was on its descending mode by 1959-60. In 1959 only three of his films were released-Jaalsaaz, Shararat and Chacha Zindabad. After this his films were not upto the mark. Kishore Kumar of course was not responsible for this. By the mid 1960s the trend in types of films and the pattern of music had undergone drastic changes. New tastes had developed and trends had changed.

The cast of film Shararat-59 was Meena Kumari- the tragedy queen, kishore Kumar-the reigning comedy king, Raaj kumar -emerging star, Kumkum, Sunder, Rajendranath etc. A combination of Tragedy queen and comedy king almost guaranteed a mix of tears and laughter and the film did justice to these expectations. The film was produced and directed by H.S.Rawail and music was by Shankar-Jaikishen. Dattaram ( without his famous Dattu-Theka in any of the songs) was their assistant. The lyrics were by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri.

Harnam Singh Rawail aka H.S.Rawail was born in Lyallpur, Punjab, Bitish India on 21-8-1921 and moved to Mumbai aspiring to be a filmmaker. Later, he moved to Calcutta where he wrote several film scripts and debuted as a director with Dorangia Daaku (1940). His three consecutive films- Shukriya(1944), Zid(1945) and Jhoothi Kasmen (1948) were commercial failures. His next film Patanga(1949) was successful and it was the seventh highest grossing Bollywood film of 1949. The film is still remembered for the song “Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon” performed by Shamshad Begum.

Later, Rawail’s nine consecutive films from 1949 till 1956 did not perform well at the box office. In March 1956, Rawail started with two new projects, Chaalbaaz with Meena Kumari and Baazigar with Vyjayantimala. Both the films were dropped eventually. However, in 1958 director Nanabhai Bhatt revived both the project starring Nirupa Roy, Jairaj and a Dog- Tiger. Chitragupta was the Music Director for both films. Chaalbaaz-58 was a Stunt film and Baazigar a Costume Drama.

Rawail took three years sabbatical and returned in 1959 with a comedy film Shararat, starring Raaj Kumar, Kishore Kumar and Meena Kumari. This film and also his next two films, viz. Roop ki Rani Choron ka Raja (1961), starring Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman and Kanch ki Gudia (1963) starring Manoj Kumar were commercial failures. But the last named movie gained recognition for Manoj Kumar who had earlier figured in several unsuccessful films.

Rawail’s major success came with 1963 musical film “Mere Mehboob” starring Rajendra Kumar and Sadhana Shivdasani. Kumar had earlier worked as an assistant director to Rawail. The film was praised for Rawail’s direction and is remembered for title song composed by music director Naushad and performed by singers Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. His next film Sunghursh (1968) was based on a novel written by the Bengali author Mahashweta Devi. The film was set in 19th century and showcased the lives of bandits. It was praised for the “exceptional performances” by its actors like Dilip Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Balraj Sahni,Sanjeev Kumar and Jayant. The actor-director Rajesh Roshan had worked as an assistant director on the film.

His next film Mehboob ki Mehendi (1971), featuring Rajesh Khanna and Leena Chandavarkar performed average at the box office but was recognised for its music composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. However, his 1976 film Laila Majnu, starring Rishi Kapoor and Ranjeeta Kaur in lead roles, became a huge blockbuster. Rawail’s last film as director Deedar-E-Yaar (1982) was a commercial failure with which he took sabbatical from the film industry.

His son Rahul Rawail is also a film director and is best known for films like Love story (1981), Betaab (1983), and Anjaam(1994). He paid a tribute to his father’s “best work” Sunghursh (1968) by titling one of his film as Jeevan ek sunghursh (1990). Rawail’s grandson Bharat Rawail is an upcoming director, who recently assisted Yash Chopra for his last film, Jab tak hai jaan (2012).

Rawail died on 17 September 2004 at the age of 83 in Mumbai.(adapted from Wiki).

Raajkumar who became famous for his crisp dialoguebaazi-after Waqt-65- was one of the Heroes. While his name came in the limelight with his role in Mother India-57, as Radha’s( Nargis) husband Shyamoo, he was still not secure in the industry,as none of his other films were Hits before 1959. However, clever Directors and Producers in the industry had already taken notice of this talented actor. In 1959 itself, he worked first time with Dilip Kumar, where he was absolutely at ease in the film,without any pressure of working with an aggressive legend. Raajkumar was certainly a person of one of a kind.

RAAJ KUMAR ( Kulbhushan Pandit, 8-10-1926 to 3-7-1996)- the dashing Hero known for his Dialoguebazi, was born in Loralai,Baluchistan in a Kashmiri Pandit family. In Hindi cinema after Sohrab Modi,it was Raaj kumar whose dialogues were popular. He was famous for his favourite word ” Jaani “. The other day,while going through the discussions on RMIM group of Google I found an interesting question,” Why Raaj kumar is called Jaani,when he never used this word in his film dialogues ? “. On checking thoroughly,one found that it was only in the film Saudagar and Tiranga that Raajkumar had used the word Jaani ,only once each. That’s all.

Then why this word became his identity ? The answer is this word was used by Raajkumar in private conversations and interviews very frequently, that is why !

Raaj kumar was Extra ordinary, in the sense that most of the time he behaved unlike other stars.

He kept his personal life in close wraps. He had married Jennifer,an Air Hostess, who later changed her name to Gayatri. he believed in keeping personal and professional lives separate. he sent his children to Boarding schools to keep them away from films,to get the best education,and not to become like other star children.

He had built a bungalow on Worli sea face and no one except his family was ever allowed inside. Whenever he left for work, a bunch of high pedigreed Dogs used to see him off till the Gate and welcome him on his arrival. He loved his Dogs very much. He used to say ” Insan kutta ban sakta hai lekin kutta Insaan nahin ban sakta. Ye bahot achhi baat hai.” In any Filmi party, he used to carry his own bottles. he never ever asked any special favours or concessions from any Producer. He was very punctual and one hour afternoon siesta was a must every day. This used to be one of the conditions in his work contracts with the producers.

He acted in 70 films in a career spanning more than 40 years. His first film was Rangeeli-52 and the last film was Bakwaas-95. At the time of Shararat, he had just done 10 films, but he was not yet known for his famous dialoguebazi, which started with thhe film Waqt-65.

Songs of Shararat-59 had become quite popular. The Lata Mangeshkar song,”Tera teer o be peer” had been on top of Binaca chart for many weeks, but could not make it as the Year’s Top song. In 1959,there were several musical films in competition, including Shankar Jaikishan’s own films. There were about 20 odd films with Hit and Popular music. Films like Anadi, Qaidi No 911, Ujala, Chhoti behan, Navrang, Dil Deke Dekho etc were having many popular songs. Today’s song is also a very melodious song. This was the first song in the film. The dancer is Kumkum, who is paired with Kishore Kumar in the film. Starting with Baaghi Shehzada-64, they paired in 6 more films. Even Kishore Kumar’s last film Maa-82 (Unreleased) had Kumkum as his Heroine.

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6 Responses to "Dekha baabu chhed ka mazaa"

Congratulations Atul ji, Deshmukh Sir and Shenoy ji on covering all songs of ‘Sharaarat-1959’ 🙂
I liked all songs of this movie because this film’s cassette in combination with ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ and ‘Lover Marriage’ was a compulsory 🙂 collection of my Uncles and was played frequently…

Thanks for your comments.
1.Chitalkar’s name is not mentioned because the paragraph is about the films and not its music.
2. In the credits of Sunghursh-68, no name -either Rakesh or Rajesh- appears as an assistant. But obviously ,if at all,then it should be Rakesh and not Rajesh-who was exclusively a musician. Since this is adapted from Wiki,it must be a misprint,which I did not notice.
-AD

Rajendranath playing the harmonium.
I had seen Sanghursh. During the the shooting Dilip and Vy were not on talking terms. Still they won the Filmfare Awards for best actor and best actress. So much for their professionalism. However Sanjeev ne sabki chhutti kar di.
The movie was not entirely of bandits. Only one character Jayant who was bandit who posed as priest. Rest it was fight between two respectable families.
Rakesh Roshan was 19 years old in 1968.